08.07.2019

Dutch Courage on Show in Indonesia

Knee injury curtails Vaessen’s potential in extreme conditions
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A depleted grid headed to the first flyaway MXGP round in Indonesia, with injury forcing many championship riders to sit at home – Hitachi KTM Fuelled by Milwaukee’s Conrad Mewse and Alexander Brown included. This left Dutchman Bas Vaessen to fly the team’s flag for the third consecutive time in the MX2 class. Now used to this situation, Vaessen has taken this situation in his stride, delivering his best results of the season and building momentum over the last few rounds in Europe.
 
Against a field of just 21 riders, Vaessen’s weekend started slowly – not helped by only managing three laps in free practice. The Hitachi KTM rider was off the pace in timed practice too, taking some time to adjust to the extreme climatic and track conditions. Improvements came in the qualifying race, but Vaessen still only crept into the top 15, finishing the race in 14th having picked up a knee injury along the way. Both the injury and the resultant gate pick would hamper his chances come race day.
 
However, a different and resurgent Vaessen emerged on Sunday, and despite questioning participation in the race due to the knee injury, Vaessen managed an average start, but then dug deep to produce low lap times and a competitive spirit throughout the course of race one. Battling his way into the top ten by halfway with previously unseen pace, Vaessen then took advantage of his fitness and stamina and picked off riders to take himself to seventh, although a top six was still 10 seconds further down the track.
 
Race two followed the same form as the first. Vaessen was unable to pick off easy places from the start, but then he fought strongly to break into the top ten, only to relinquish this spot with a small crash with three laps to go. With seventh a possibility, Vaessen and the team had to console themselves with a place outside the top ten, in 11th, meaning an overall result of ninth for the weekend’s worth. Given the injury, conditions and a brace of poor starts the team can’t be too disappointed with the weekend.
 
Bas Vaessen: “The weekend started off pretty slow as I needed a long time to adapt to the track and qualified 14th on Saturday after I twisted my knee in the race. Sunday I took an easy warm up to feel how my knee was and it felt okay to ride. In the first moto I had a bad start and my knee took some time to warm up but then I started to make up positions to go from almost last to seventh. It was a similar story in the second moto, with another poor start until I found a rhythm and managed to take eighth and pushing for seventh. I knew I was pushing hard and on the limit, and a small tip over meant that I twisted my knee again, so rode within myself for the last few laps to score an 11th for 9th overall. It was a frustrating weekend, given my recent results, an my starts were pretty poor this weekend so need to figure that out before the next race and I’ll take it easy with my knee this upcoming week.”
 
 
Roger Magee, Team Manager Hitachi KTM Fuelled by Milwaukee; “It took Bas a while to gel with the new circuit this weekend but when he did, he certainly showed his true ability and stamina in the extremely hot and humid conditions. A difficult qualifying on Saturday gave him a mediocre gate pick in moto one and a resultant poor start. However, he regrouped well and elevated himself up to p7 at the finish, past many other top GP contenders who had faltered in the punishing conditions. For moto two, again he failed to make a good start, but once more was able to pass many of the pack and was trying to make the pass for p7 past Renaux with just 2 laps to go when he had a small crash relegating himself down to p11. With the weekend’s haul of points, he has now closed the gap on 8th place in the overall MX2 Championship.”
 
1. Jorge Prado (ESP), Red Bull KTM (1-2)
2. Tom Vialle (FRA), Red Bull KTM (2-3)
4. Thomas Kjer Olsen (DEN), Husqvarna (6-1)
3. Maxime Renaux (FRA), Yamaha (3-7)
5. Jed Beaton (AUS) Husqvarna (5-5)
9. Bas Vaessen (NED) Hitachi KTM Fuelled by Milwaukee (7-11)
 
Standings MX2 2019 after 11 of 18 rounds
 
1. Jorge Prado 494
2. Thomas Kjer Olsen 443
3. Jago Geerts 334
4. Tom Vialle 326
5. Henry Jacobi 307
9. Bas Vaessen (NED) Hitachi KTM Fuelled by Milwaukee 209
 
Images: Ray Archer
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